Counseling Disabled Children

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The mental development of a military child is effected by military life and the overall lifestyle of the family from their beliefs, morals, and spirituality. When counseling and mentoring children, challenges they endure need to be taken into consideration such as disability, deployment, and family culture. Deployments impacts children emotionally, academically, socially, and causes them to react with anger and violence. Counselors and community resources play a role in assisting military families through these significant events. Factors that affect the mental development of a military child includes but not limited to military divorces, long separations, due to extended training events or combat deployments, long work hours and parenting style. Having a child that shows signs of a serious intellectual, emotional, or physical disability can be very problematic for a military family. Children with disabilities that cause their behavior to affect their reaction to life can place a significant strain on the family dynamic. Everyone in the household will be affected by the disability and will have to receive counseling to better understand how to live a productive life. The problem not only affects the family’s life but it also affects the child’s ability to learn and be productive at school. Children requires a lot of attention and love on a daily basis, however, having a child that has a disability requires extra attention and love because they are trying to understand the world through a different set of lens. This could become a problem especially if there are multiple children in the household. In often cases, the amount of attention that the parents give to the child in need obstruct the family dynamic because of the pa... ... middle of paper ... ...national tragedy. Retrieved September 10, 2003, from http://ericcass.uncg.edu/vrituallib/stresstrauma/1007.html National Institute of Mental Health. Transforming the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses. Depression in Children and Adolescents (Fact Sheet). Retrieved March 6, 2014, from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/index.shtml SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices. (2014). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Retrieved March 5, 2014, from http://www.nrepp.samhsa.gov/ViewIntervention.aspx?id=191 Sogomonyan, F. & Cooper, J. L. (2010). National Center for Children in Poverty. Trauma Faced by Children of Military Families: What Every Policy Maker Should Know Sweeney, P., Rhodes, J., & Boling B. (2012) Spiritual Fitness: A Key Component of Total Force Fitness. Joint force Quarterly, 66, p. 35-43.

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